12

CONTACT DETAILS:

Richard Watts

Partnership Secretary

t: 01772 534582

m: 07887 831126

Brian Haworth

Partnership

Development Officer

t: 01772 533196

m: 07887 831129

Simon Clarke

Partnership

Development Officer

t: 01772 530144

m: 07788 924232

1

THE NEWSLETTER OF LANCASHIRE’S COMMUNITY RAILWAYS

ISSUE 8 SPRING 2010

GREAT WALL OF DAISYFIELD

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Richard’s Ramblings, Accrington Eco Station, Friends of Nelson Station,

DalesRail 2010, Brian the Bull, DalesRail and much, much more!!

The children of Class 6 at Daisyfield School, working with local Blackburn art-

ist Alastair Nicholson, have produced artwork depicting the rail journey be-

tween Blackburn and Clitheroe. The work has been inspired by Friedensreich

Hundertwasser an Austrian artist and architect. Alastair worked in class with

the children over six Thursday afternoons and the paintings were then photo-

graphed and turned into a large digital montage. The montage was then printed

onto three 10 metre banners. See pages 6 & 7 for the full story.

2

RICHARD’S RAMBLINGS

(Richard’s Ramblings does not necessarily reflect either the official policy of

Lancashire County Council or of any Community Rail Partnership.)

What is the value of Community Rail and does it make a difference? Well on

the three designated services in Lancashire we have brought in over £25,000

from the Community Rail Development Fund (CRDF) to support a wide range of

projects. This has been more than matched by other grants bringing the total

to well over £50,000. Now that is real money!!

What you may well ask is the CRDF? This is a fund that has been set up by

ACoRP, the DfT and Network Rail to provide grants towards a range of pro-

jects on designated community rail lines & services. There are currently three

designated lines in Lancashire namely the South Fylde Line (Blackpool South to

Preston), East Lancashire Line (Preston to Colne) and the Clitheroe Line. We

hope to have a further designated line very soon. It is fair to say that the

three Lancashire CRPs eligible to bid for this grant have made excellent use of

it this year. Take a look at some of the projects supported by the CRDF:

£3,000 towards the refurbishment of the new shelters at Lostock Hall. The

shelters were originally at Accrington. Take a look at them when you pass,

they look as good as new - possibly even better!

£4,500 towards the 'Greening of the East Lancashire Line' a new DVD starring

the now world famous Brian the Bull and featuring the new Eco Station at

Accrington;

£2,000 towards marketing events supporting last years Colne Rhythm & Blues

Festival. Remember the Charlie White Project and that special beer 'Sax

on the Track' – if not then you just don't know what you missed!!

£2,000 towards a marketing campaign for Pendle Connect the special bus to

rail ticket;

£875 to support the development of the new look DalesRail website –

www.dalesrail.com. The site goes from strength to strength with nearly

1000 unique visitors in March.

£5,000 towards a design study for Lytham Station. This has proved interest-

ing especially, the conservation issues.

£3,250 towards a new 12 page full colour line guide for the South Fylde Line.

An impressive list and there were more!!

11

WEBSITES

www.communityraillancashire.co.uk

www.dalesrail.com

www.northernrail.org

www.ribblevalleyrail.co.uk

http://opsta.iccommunities.co.uk

www.llmr.co.uk

www.railramblers.com

www.burnleyandpendle.co.uk

www.nationalrail.co.uk

www.merseytravel.gov.uk

For information on Lancashire’s Community Rail partnerships and for a host of

other useful information please visit the following websites:

Photographs and images in this issue are by kind permission of:

Simon Clarke, Brian Haworth, LCC, and Source Creative,

Saturday May 22nd to Saturday June 12th 2010 sees the Annual Commu-

nity Rail Exhibition in the Platform Gallery in Clitheroe. ‘Alistair the Artist’

will be working with local schools on an animated project called ’Meet Me

at the Station’ and the result of this work will be displayed in and around

the gallery over the three week period.

Saturday 5th June 2010 sees a Community Open Day at Blackpool North

Station and Enfield Road Depot. There will be stalls at both the station

and depot. It is hoped that the Duchess of Sutherland will be making a

visit. As well as this welcome steam visit a number of Northern Rail diesel

units will be on show including 142, 150, 153, 156 & 158 classes. The

Lancashire Community Rail Partnerships will be represented along with

members of BAFRUA, the local Rail User Group.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

The 21st Annual Rhythm & Blues Festival in Colne will be taking place over

the August bank holiday weekend. The East Lancashire CRP is once again

supporting this event with a music train on the opening evening and late

trains from Colne to get festival goers home.

The National Community Rail Awards ceremony will be taking place on Fri-

day 24th September 2010 in Westcliffe-on-Sea. The Lancashire CRPs will

be entering the awards in a number of categories and is hoping for another

success following on from Brian the Bull in September 2009.

10

ACCRINGTON ECO STATION

A new station building is under construction on the Eagle Street side of Ac-

crington Station with a completion date scheduled for early July 2010. The key

objectives of the Accrington Eco Station project is to promote the innovative

use of existing and emerging knowledge, products and services in the design

and operation of the new station building and car park that are sustainable and

reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Some of the technology being

used includes solar panels, solar water heating, a wind turbine and grey (rain)

water harvesting for use in flushing toilets.

Part of the project is to link it to other

transport networks including pedes-

trian and cycle routes, such as the

Hyndburn Greenway, and also to the

proposed new bus interchange and the

local road network. A Station Travel

Plan is being developed and this will be

launched at the same time as the new

station opens.

For up to date information about this

project and to see a series of photographs recording the construction go to:

www.communityraillancashire.co.uk or www.eastlancashirecrp.co.uk/gallery

BRIAN THE BULL PROJECT

The last 12 months has been very busy and very successful for the Brian the

Bull (Explore the Ribble valley Line DVD) project - 16 schools visited and over

530 year 5 & 6 children involved. Brian Haworth and Marjorie Birch have taken

on the task of the school visits and also the subsequent train journey along the

Clitheroe Line and Marjorie has also developed an additional teaching aid with a

flowchart showing how teachers might link the project to the National Curricu-

lum.

Just about every school is getting something different out of

the project - Padiham Green has linked it to the book The Rail-

way Children, Daisyfield developed a science & technology pro-

ject on bridges and St. Mary’s Langho are working on some po-

etry - to name just a few! Some of the resultant work can be

seen on the Community Rail Lancashire website at:

www.communityraillancashire.co.uk/learning-zone.

3

RICHARD’S RAMBLINGS

The CRDF is truly an excellent grant. The good news for 2010 is that the

grant is likely to be available again. I know that the Lancashire CRPs have al-

ready got plans to make further bids but you will need to keep visiting

www.communityraillancashire.co.uk to find out what they are.

To answer my question Community Rail does have a real value and is able to

bring in funding to support a range of projects that really do make a differ-

ence. On top of this many of the local station partnerships also obtain grants

so well done Friends of Nelson and Ribble Valley Rail. I look forward to

'meeting you at the station' – sorry!!

See also ACoRP’s report on - The Value of Community Rail Partnerships at:

http://www.acorp.uk.com/Values%20of%20CPR's%20project.html.

ORMSKIRK STATION

The recently refurbished Ormskirk Station is being entered by SBS Archi-

tects into the ‘Manchester Society of Architects Design Awards’ in April 2010

and also into the 'National Railway Heritage Awards' in December 2010. The

Grade 2 listed building was fully refurbished last year with considerable atten-

tion given to restoring the external fabric to as close its original condition as

modern standards allow. Fingers crossed that it wins one of these prestigious

awards this year.

The beautifully restored exterior of Ormskirk station

4

BRIAN THE BULL DIGS IN

Padiham Green Primary School is just one of many schools who have experi-

enced the 'Brian the Bull' initiative, but due to the school's close proximity to

a closed railway line, the children have expanded their studies into industrial

archaeology!

Part of the disused

North Lancashire Loop

line that passes

through Padiham has

been recently redevel-

oped and the Padiham

Greenway Project has

breathed new life into

a section of this long

abandoned railway line

by converting it into a

cycle and pathway.

Mrs Ennis's class have

become very involved

in the Greenway Project and have planted bulbs and shrubs beside the new

path and thanks to Brian the Bull's artefact collection, have now carried out an

archaeological dig in an area of the old sidings adjacent to Padiham viaduct.

The enthusiastic children have

spent time discovering items

and understanding the layout of

the area when it was a working

railway. Brian and Marjorie,

from the Community Rail Part-

nership, were asked to revisit

the school to help identify the

finds – most of which originated

from the railway. The children

are now busy drawing and cata-

loguing their finds prior to dis-

playing them at school. The en-

thusiasm of the all the children has to be seen to be believed – in fact some of

the children are continuing their search on their way to school each morning!

The children of Padiham Green School with their finds

Some of the artefacts

9

FARES FARE

Pendle Connect the innovative

new ticket for the Pendle

Area has been relaunched

with a brand new poster to

match the existing East Lan-

cashire Day Ranger poster.

Pendle Connect allows custom-

ers to board the bus in the

Pendle 7 area and transfer to

the train for an onward jour-

ney to Accrington, Blackburn

or Preston without having to

purchase separate tickets.

Northern Rail’s ever popular Duo ticket has been expanded. The Lancashire

area has been selected as one of the areas to trial cross-route availability. Pre-

viously Duo tickets were only available on line of route but now on certain

routes customers will be able to purchase Duos that allow a change of train to

a different line of route. Examples of this are from the Clitheroe line to Pre-

ston and onto the Ormskirk line and stations from the Blackpool South and

Blackpool North lines to Blackburn and stations in east Lancashire. More de-

tails can be found in the news archive section of the Community Rail Lancashire

website or by visiting www.northernrail.org.

MEET ME AT THE STATIONRibble Valley Rail, one of the partners on the Clitheroe Line CRP has secured

funding for an ’artist in residence’ to work at some of the schools involved in

the Brian the Bull project to produce a range of art work, including an anima-

tion, on the theme of ’Meet Me at the Station’. This work will be on display in

the Platform Gallery for three weeks from 22nd May until 12th June and a

permanent piece of art will be produced to enhance the station.

Along with the art work the CRP is hoping to have a exhibition of photographs

on the same ‘Meet Me at the Station’ theme on display in the gallery. Anyone

who has a photograph that they think may be suitable can send them to Simon

Clarke either electronically to simon.clarke@lancashire.gov.uk or by post to

Environment Directorate, Room D1, PO Box 78 , County Hall, Fishergate Hill,

Preston PR1 8XJ.

8

PRESTON TO ORMSKIRK

The DfT is formally consulting a range of bodies about the formal designation

of the Preston to Ormskirk line as a community rail line and service. This move

is fully supported by the West of Lancashire Community Rail Partnership and

was heralded as far back as November 2004 in the Community Rail Develop-

ment Strategy.

Take a look at the timetable for

the line and you will see that

trains are all over the place, quite

unlike most services in Lancashire

which operate to a standard pat-

tern each hour. It is not an easy

timetable to remember and there

are some quite long gaps as well.

Through designation the West of

Lancashire CRP wants to work

with Northern Rail, Network Rail and the DfT to secure an improved service –

preferably an hourly clock face timetable as suggested in the Network Rail

Lancashire & Cumbria Route Utilisation Strategy launched in August 2008.

That way it will be easy to remember the timetable and generate improved us-

age of this line.

In the meantime the Partnership wants to secure a CRDF grant towards a line

guide which it hopes to develop jointly with Northern Rail and launch later this

year. This will complement a similar guide being prepared by Northern Rail for

the Wigan to Southport line.

Lancashire DalesRail is the name being applied to a Northern Rail Class 156 unit

to celebrate 35 years of

DalesRail services from Lan-

cashire.

The naming will take place at Clitheroe Interchange on Friday 30th April in a

ceremony attended by Richard Watts (LCC), Howard Hammersley (Rail Ram-

blers) and Matt Beeton and Kathryn O’Brien (Northern Rail). The unit will then

makes it’s inaugural run on the DalesRail service from Blackpool to Carlisle on

Sunday 2nd May.

LANCASHIRE DALESRAIL

View across St. Mary’s Marina

5

FRIENDS OF NELSON STATION

THE FURNESS LINE

The scenic Furness Line is likely to get a CRP through an initiative being led by

Cumbria County Council. The CRP would cover the route from Lancaster to Bar-

row in Furness which passes through the attractive Arnside/Silverdale AONB,

crosses over the Kent and Leven Estuaries where you can feel at sea at high

tide and passes through Grange and Ulverston before reaching Barrow.

There is much to do from the

line so having a CRP will cer-

tainly help promote its attrac-

tions to the leisure user. I am

sure we can look forward to

some interesting initiatives –

get out your waders you may

have to cross over Morecambe

Bay with Cedric Robinson in

order to catch your train

home!!

This relatively new station part-

nership group, that have taken on

looking after Nelson Station have

been very successful in pulling in

local grants to help them in their

work at the station.

The group led by Walter Staf-

ford and Eddie Emmot have

greatly improved the outer plat-

form area at the Colne end of the

station by removing copious

amounts of weeds from the flagged area which has made a huge difference to

the station appearance.

The group have plans to provide and maintain flower tubs in the newly cleared

area and are raising funding to purchase recycled plastic planters. The group

hold regular meetings and regular working parties at the station. If there is

anyone out there who would like to join this busy group Walter can be con-

tacted on 01282611797 or by email to walter410@btinternet.com

Friends of Nelson Station Working Party

Picturesque Silverdale station

6

THE GREAT WALL

The 'Great Wall of Daisyfield' started life as a fence; this fence was an old

railway sleeper fence between Daisyfield School playground and the Blackburn

to Clitheroe railway line just north of Daisyfield signal box. Daisyfield Primary

School had earlier been adopted by the Clitheroe Line CRP and Northern Rail,

Network Rail and the Partnership Officers had all been into to school to do

presentations on railway safety and the history of the line.

Following the Network Rail presentation, Peter Fenton the Head, asked if was

possible to do something with the dilapidated fence and Network Rail agreed to

look at what might be done. Very shortly after, the fence was replaced with a

wall and the 45 metres of skimmed surface left an ideal canvas for some sort

of artwork - and the Great Wall of Daisyfield was born.

Following the school’s involvement in the Explore the Ribble Valley Line DVD it

was agreed that it would be good to have the children get involved in a project

that depicted the journey from Blackburn to Clitheroe concentrating on what

you might see ‘through the train window’.

The CRP approached Alistair Nicholson, a local artist, to see if he would be in-

terested in helping, and after his initial surprise at the size of the canvas he

agreed. After time to think he asked Peter Fenton if he had heard of an artist

call Hundertwasser, and not only had Peter heard of him but said that Hun-

dertwasser was one of the artists to be studied in the National Curriculum.

Alistair suggested that the children might like to paint in the style of the Aus-

trian artist and this was warmly received. Alistair said that vinyl banners would

be the easiest way to cover such a large area and the project got under way.

7

OF DAISYFIELD

The Clitheroe Line CRP made a bid to the Designated Line Community Rail De-

velopment Fund for a grant to cover this project. 'Alastair the Artist' was en-

gaged to go into school for six afternoon sessions over six weeks to work with

the children of Class 6 to produce some artwork after the style of Hun-

dertwasser that showed the journey from Blackburn to Clitheroe.

The project started with a class fact finding trip along the line, organised by

the CRP and given free by Northern Rail. The children were encouraged to look

‘through the train windows’ and to note anything down that they might like to

paint. The trip also took them by foot under the massive Whalley viaduct. A

record was made of everything that the children could remember about the

trip.

Once the final session had been completed Alastair took away all the images

and set about pasting them into the final image ready to take to the vinyl

printing company. Proofs were sent round as 'cut ups' and once approved pro-

duction commenced. The vinyl banners were delivered to the school and once

these were rolled out the enormity of the project hit home – they covered

best part of half of the school hall!

The vinyl panels were fixed to the wall and the Great Wall of Daisyfield was

officially unveiled on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 in a ceremony attended by

the Mayor of Blackburn and other distinguished guests from the CRP, Network

Rail, Northern Rail and GMPTE.

The full story and many photographs can be seen by visiting the Community Rail

Lancashire website at www.communityraillancashire.co.uk/galleries.